Trust Pursues Health Care Reform

By Scott Culver
Communications Specialist
WEA Trust

June 2004

Many of the so-called solutions to the health care cost crisis that you read about in the mainstream media simply offer to pass increasing costs on to employees.

At the WEA Trust, we have introduced various plan options and programs that members can use to help get a handle on their health plan costs. But we realize that, ultimately, rising health care costs will require fundamental reforms at the state level.

That’s why last year we introduced The New Wisconsin Idea, an innovative four-step plan for tackling the state’s health care cost crisis. These four reforms together would fundamentally alter the state’s health care delivery and financing systems thereby reducing costs and improving the quality of health care in Wisconsin.

If enacted, these reforms would make more affordable health care available to every resident of the state. The New Wisconsin Idea boils down to:

• Creating a large purchasing pool to buy prescription drugs based on effectiveness. The Trust embarked on this last year (see story above).
  
  
• Developing a centralized clearinghouse for paying claims and collecting medical data.
  
  
• Establishing transparency in health care costs; that is, creating a system where a patient knows how much a medical service costs and what the health plan will reimburse.
  
  
• Making health care accessible and affordable by having the state provide preventive and catastrophic care to all through centers of excellence.

WEAlth Educator helps chart your financial course

Do you have an investment strategy? Do you want to know if you’re on track to meet your investment goals? Or, are you a new investor who needs to develop a plan?

You might want to take a look at WEAlth Educator, the WEA Trust’s online retirement-planning program. This easy-to-use tool is designed to help you determine savings and retirement goals, develop your own savings strategy, and re-evaluate your plan.

To find WEAlth Educator, visit weatrust.com and type in “wealth educator” in the search box at the top of the page. Once there, you can browse or follow the steps to learn about investing and retirement planning.

Online worksheets and interviews collect the information you need to evaluate your situation and make investment choices that fit your needs. The program can incorporate other savings and investments and will even estimate your WRS pension and Social Security benefits.

See how the WEAlth Educator can work for you:

Assess your situation – The retirement-planning section will help you determine where your current savings will leave you in retirement and offer ways to tailor your savings strategies to meet your goals.

Develop a strategy that’s right for you – The asset allocation interview will help you determine what type of investor you are by assessing your tolerance for risk and then matching your personality to a portfolio that’s right for you.

Build your portfolio – WEAlth Educator helps you build a portfolio with the investment options available through the Trust’s tax-sheltered annuity (TSA) program. The investment options are categorized to match the suggested allocations in the sample portfolio.

Plan Advantage Calculator – The Plan Advantage Calculator allows you to plug in different contribution scenarios to help you determine a contribution that is right for you.

Put your plan to work – The next step is to make changes to your Trust TSA account. Make changes to your account balances and/or future contributions, by calling a retirement consultant at WEA Trust Member Benefits at 1-800-279-4030. Remember that the asset allocation you have selected should be applied to all of your retirement investments, not just those in your employer’s plan.

Posted June 2, 2004